Category: Dulwich Estate

Dulwich Village was long known for its healthy range of shops run by locals. Some can still remember that the Village once had a much wider range of shops. It was a destination for shoppers within Dulwich and beyond seeking a wide range of fresh food including fruit & vegetables and fresh meats.

Many such locally run shops have gone. Only recently the last remaining grocer closed, causing great inconvenience to locals who depended on it. Higher and higher rents demanded by the Dulwich Estate landlord, attracted by high value tenants such as corporate chains and estate agents, have made it hard for neighbourhood shops to continue.

In this environment, it is wonderful to see that our independent businesses are doing well and that they are strengthening by working together. They depend on us shopping with them.

In this documentary I interviewed shop owners in Dulwich Village about the importance of independent businesses to the local area and what they liked about their local community. Part of a series of blogs promoting independent businesses in the London Borough of Southwark, Supported by Creation trust & Southwark Council. View the rest of the documentaries here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRgf… Shot and edited by myself. Researcher Will Akinnuoye. Special thanks to the contributors: Anne Halmer Hazel Broadfoot Brian Green Patrick Belton Keeley Turner Executive Produced By Patrischia Warmington. Music: Blue Dot Sessions – Town Market

The Dulwich Gallery wants to erect a Pavilion in its grounds for the summer and has applied to the Council for permission. It also wants a licence for alcohol and late operating.

It is the 200th Anniversary of the Gallery so of course they want to celebrate. However, the amenity of residents will be affected in one way or another and particularly in Edward Alleyn House, Woodyard Lane (who heard the outdoor Belair House and Park Cinema noise on summer evenings in the past), College Gardens and College Road as well as Turney and Burbage Roads.

The Pavilion is temporary but there is no date for its removal and if it is a commercial success it could reappear next year or remain in place. The Gallery is understood to be looking for business hirers for summer parties. This is in addition to events such as weddings which are regularly held there. Included in the Gallery’s application to the council is cinema, dance, live and recorded music, a bar and other events. The Gallery does not say how frequently it plans to hold these events except that the application covers the months of June, July and August, every weekend and every evening in the week.

The Pavilion has no insulation against noise and neither would a marquee. There are precedents locally – Edward Alleyn Club and the Velodrome – where there have been successful negotiations with residents about events impinging on them. This is what the Gallery should consider in this instance, particularly if strong feelings develop about its proposals.

The Gallery should have approached residents in advance of its application to the council. As it has not done so, now is the time to tell the council and the councillors.

If a resident is happy with the plans there is no need to do anything.

Front garden layouts are a bugbear of Turney Road – ugly with so many unsightly car parks standing brutally in front of our fine Edwardian houses.

However with the influx of new residents paying high prices for their homes and investing even more into them, there has been a welcome increased resident acknowledgement that frontages are detracting from their homes and from the street.

In response the Scheme of Management has provided an example front garden layout for the houses in Turney Road, that are unable to comply with the Scheme of Management Guidelines for Hardstandings due to the small size of the front garden. The example drawing is below and more information is on its website. They form the basis of the Manager’s approach to an application to redesign a front garden. Any queries should be referred to Nina Rees at the Scheme of Management office.

Where residents intend to park a car on a forecourt they will need to apply to Southwark Council for permission to create a new entry into the highway – from the forecourt into the road. The Council can give approval under planning and highways legislation to create a new kerb crossover onto the road. The crossover is recognised by its ‘dropped’ kerb edge.

As it’s been a while since we received planning, I thought it was time that I updated you all on what’s happening at The Half Moon in Herne Hill.

You might be wondering why we’ve not started work yet – so I thought it would be worth explaining where we are in the process. As The Half Moon is a Grade II* listed building, we had to apply for planning permission and listed buildings consent. We are now in the process of liaising with the planning authority to discharge conditions pertaining to this approval. This includes aspects such as how we are going to deal with any noise created by the venue, details of the joinery repairs we want to make and what bricks and roof tiles we want to use – in this case, we have to supply samples too, to make sure they fit with the listed building consent.

As you can imagine, this process takes a long time – and we are unlikely to be on site before August at the earliest. We are legally not allowed to start anything until we have successfully discharged all the conditions and the planning authority is 100% happy. Once we do start, the build is going to take about four months. During that time, we also need to appoint a General Manager and start to hire a team to provide the exceptional level of service we offer in all our pubs. And, of course, we need to hire a Head Chef and a kitchen team.

As you may remember, we had hoped to be open in the autumn – but as the planning elements are taking so much longer than anticipated, realistically we won’t be open until early in 2017.

I know this is disappointing – for both the residents of Herne Hill and for us – but I hope you can understand that when you are dealing with a property that has as much history and heritage as The Half Moon, these things often take more time than expected. I hope you will all bear with us – and I look forward to welcoming you all to The Half Moon in the new year.

Village residents are concerned that Sainsbury’s hasn’t done enough to protect the heritage features of Dulwich Village and are insisting on adopting their usual orange logo which does not sit easily with the rest of the heritage frontage on the Dulwich Village high street.

Southwark planning officers are recommending granting planning consent. Village residents have written to the planning committee to request a rethink on the size and colour of the Sainsbury’s logo in Dulwich Village to ensure it is in keeping with the other businesses on the shopping parade.Letter to Planning Committee

Parents in Herne Hill have launched a petition urging planners to protect a playing field at Judith Kerr Primary School (JKPS), 62-68 Half Moon Lane from being sold off for development by the Dulwich Estate. The Dulwich Estate has recently announced it would like to build sheltered housing for older residents on the site.

State school JKPS leases its buildings and grounds from The Dulwich Estate, an education charity that counts Dulwich College, Alleyn’s and James Allen’s Girls’ School among its beneficiaries. However, not all the land at the site is leased by the school and the lease terms specify that the green space not leased by the school can be sold and developed into residential housing at any time, subject to planning permission from Southwark Council.

James Roberts, a spokesman for the parents’ Green Space Campaign, said the group was urging the council to change the status of the field to “Open Space” in order to protect it.

The New Southwark Plan preferred option is to designate JKPS green space to ‘Other Open Space’. The petition asked respondees to register support to ensure the designation of ‘Other Open Space’ is approved. Southwark Council are not yet in a position to say what the final outcome is likely to be as the consultation has just closed.

In the meantime, the Dulwich Estate has said it has submitted representations to the council concerning the land at 62-68 Half Moon Lane for possible use as subsidised sheltered housing for elderly people. It also plans a public consultation exercise. See The Dulwich Estate Statement about the Almshouses

What are the issues with the lease?

Further background (courtesy of the Dulwich Estate June 2015):

“….The establishment of a school in this location was not under the control of nor encouraged by the Estate.

The CfBT Schools Trust took an assignment of the building lease from King’s College London in the clear knowledge that the remaining term of the lease was relatively short. The Estate was approached with a view to securing a longer tenure in order that the School could obtain the substantial funding required to convert the premises for use as a school from the Education Funding Agency.

The agreement between CfBT Schools Trust and the Estate was reached in order to accommodate the Trust’s aim of securing the future of the School in the longer term. The Trust was well aware that in consideration for this, the area of the site to be occupied by the School going forward would not be the whole site. The Trust chose to establish a school in this location on the basis of this agreement, i.e. that the Estate would take back part of the original site…”

The lease from The Dulwich Estate stipulates that JKPS is not allowed to object to planning permission. Therefore the JKPS Green Space Campaign was established to prevent the school from losing the playing field on behalf of the school, its children and the local community. The lease further restricts the school, CfBT and the school’s governing body from opposing the planning application(s).